


The Jeweled Clip

by daughteroflilith



Series: The Moũsai Saga [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anal Sex, Dark, Double Penetration, Espionage, F/F, Fisting, Knifeplay, Rape, Space Opera, Strap-Ons, Threesome - F/F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-01-11 19:17:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18430415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughteroflilith/pseuds/daughteroflilith
Summary: A low ranking Terra Nuevan diplomat is sent to seduce a Varcian general and plant a bug in her home. Things do not go as planned.--On Hiatus--





	1. Thrown to the Wolves

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Story contains the graphic rape of a spy by a general. 
> 
> General Disclaimer: This is meant purely as a work of dark erotica and exploration of fantasy. In the real world rape is a horrible crime and sex should always involve enthusiastic and affirmative consent.

I stared at the ambassador across from me. “You can’t be serious,”

The old grey haired bitch didn’t even blink. “I am, deathly so.”

“I’m not a spy, much less a…”

She tilted her head slightly, “whore?”

I blushed darkly and looked away, “No disrespect your imminence, but I’m just a consulate officer. I know how to write briefings, not seduce a powerful general or plant bugs.  Surely there is someone better suited to this.”

She sighed and pushed back her chair to stand. She crossed the room to pour two glasses of dark Varcian whiskey and set one in front of me.

  “Believe me, this is less than ideal.  We’ve tried everything that we dare. General Harper has excellent security on her home and office.  We’ve never been able to get anyone into it. In spite of her reputation she’s also managed to roundly ignore any of our spies, who have attempted to seduce her.”

I reached hesitantly for the glass.  When I sipped the strong liquor it made me cough.  “And you think I can?”

“Her eyes follow you.  She danced with you at the last state ball. You better fit the profile of her past conquests than anyone else we have here in the embassy or within our current spy network.”

“She likes low level assistants from foreign embassies?”

“Something like that.”  Her chair squeaked as she sat back down.   “This really shouldn’t be that difficult for you, especially if the rumors I have heard about you are true.”

“Excuse me?”

Her thin eyebrow arched, “Do you really think anything happens in this embassy or with its staff that I don’t hear about? You’ve worked your way through nearly all of the female marines who guard our embassy.  Surely adding a general to your list shouldn’t be such a great leap.”

My face was burning.  “I…”

“Are going to do your duty for your planet.  We’ve lost too many inside channels, too many spies.  We need this information and the only way we are going to get it is through these bugs. We have to know if the Varcians are considering war.  This is much, much bigger than you.”

She opened a drawer and set something shiny on the table.  It was a heavy silver hair clip with a great number of tiny black stones in a spiral design.  “You’ll need this.”

“How does it work?”

She dug a nail under one of the stones and it came free, leaving the silver smooth and untouched where it had been.  “Each of the outer stones is a bug. They are top of the line and undetectable to most scanning equipment. If any of the stones are found you can always simply say they fell off the clip.”

My hands shook as I took it.  

“I really have to do this don’t I?”

“For King and planet you must.”

 

…

 

One thing I’ll say for the Varcians.  They know how to throw a good party. The Empress’s court in the palace of Versali seemed to consist of nearly endless balls.   I’d had to spend several times more than my modest clothing allowance in order to appear presentable.

It could be easy sometimes to be seduced by the luxury and beauty of these events, the fine food, the warm lights, the music and the sparkling alcohol.  You could almost forget that you were still on the clock, that it was a place where deals were struck or loose lips could lose a secret.

I wore my best dress, a dark blue silk one that clung to me like a glove and left half my back and most of my legs exposed.  I had adorned my neck and wrists with delicate silver jewelry that matched the clip, which held back my auburn hair.

I usually kept fairly close to other members of my own embassy but that night I made sure to arrive a little late, so that I could enter alone.  I scanned the great hall as I slowly descended the main staircase. I could almost feel the cool stone of the steps through my thin slippers.

I did not see General Harper anywhere in the crowd and that filled me with a deep sense of relief.  Maybe she was not there. I made my way through the crowd, greeting acquaintances from other embassies as I went.  Normally I would have snatched every good hors d’oeuvre that passed me, but this time I was too tense. I took a flute of champagne to settle my nerves.

It tasted light and sweet.  I felt like I couldn’t breath.  I pushed out onto the balcony and gulped in cool night air.  The balcony was almost empty, save a couple speaking softly at one end.  I went to the other and leaned against the railing.

The great palace gardens stretched out beneath me.  I could even see the lights of the ball reflecting distantly in a fountain. I closed my eyes and took slow steady breaths.  

I did not hear her approach, did not know she was beside me until she spoke.

“It is a lovely evening, is it not?”

I jerked with surprise and champagne sloshed all over my hand.  General Harper smiled slyly as she leaned against the railing beside me.  If I were not so terribly afraid of her, I would have found her deeply attractive.

She was a tall woman, with a soldier’s lean and powerful build beneath her formal white dress uniform.  She had seen her fair share of combat and carried her scars well. She wore a black eye path over her left eye.  Though another woman might have grown her hair longer to hide the marks around her old wound, she wore her dark hair short, just a little bit longer than in a military cut.  Her remaining eye and lean face seemed almost lupine in the darkness of the balcony.

“Walters, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I’m surprised you remember my last name.”  I looked down at my hands because I couldn’t find the courage to look at her.  

“In spite of what people say about me, I do have some social graces.  If I dance with a woman, I remember her.” She leaned a little bit closer to me, “So what are you doing out here all alone?  Could you find no dashing marine to accompany you tonight?”

“I had to work late, everyone had already gone by the time I left so I came alone.”

She reached out and gently tilted my face up, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.

“All the better for me then.  I have wanted a chance to steal a moment with you.  You left the last ball so quickly, I didn’t get to ask you for a second dance.”

“I would like that, another dance I mean.”  What was wrong with me, I was stumbling over my words like a schoolgirl.

She took my hand and led me back inside.  We danced under the brilliant light of the chandeliers.  She moved with confidence and grace, more than one would have expected from a soldier.  She had my right hand in hers and her left on my waist, guiding me through each step.

“You seem very tense little diplomat, you are not afraid of me are you?”

“No, of course not.”

She smiled thinly, “the scars have that effect sometimes.”

“I’m just intimidated.  I’m no one and you are a powerful general with the ear of the empress.  I know your face from the news”

When she laughed it was a shallow sound, “I can’t imagine that the Terra Nuevan news has anything good to say about me.”

“The war has been over for five years,”

She twirled me once and then pulled me close again. “Indeed it has.  That is why you and the rest of your embassy are here. All old animosities must be set aside for the sake of peace.”  I wasn’t sure but I thought I heard a touch of sarcasm in her tone. “I much prefer to dance with women than to kill them.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine and I tried not to think about how many of my country women she had killed in battle.  She’d been the Varcian General at the battle of Broken Shield and Barbary Harbor. She was no ordinary soldier. “And I would much rather live in a world where I can be a diplomat rather than a soldier.”

The rest of the evening passed in a blur.  We danced a few more songs, drank another glass of champagne and then she asked me if I would like to accompany her home for another drink.  

In that moment, I considered saying no.  I could still get out of it. She frightened  me but I couldn’t run from my duty. I knew just how much Terra Nueva needed information.  So I said yes.

She kissed me for the first time in back of her car as we crossed the city to her home.  She was gentle and yet demanding, her mouth hard against mine. Her hands were firm against my body but respectful of where she touched.  I could feel my heart beating frantically within my chest.

The car pulled into a courtyard and it was a short walk across a gravel yard, in through a backdoor protected by a bored looking guard and up a flight of stairs.   She pushed open a heavy wooden door and then we were in her bedroom.

I could make out very little of it in the darkness, although I could see through a half closed inner door that it connected to a study.  I would need to get one of the bugs planted there.

I didn’t get much time to think because suddenly she was kissing me again.  She scooped me up with surprising ease, eliciting a startled laugh from me and carried me to the bed.  

I landed on my back and sat up to reach for her.  She straddled me and tried to run her hands through my hair. When the clip got in her way, she undid it.

My heart stopped when she held up the clip to examine it in the faint light that filtered in through the window.

“That ambassador of yours really is one hell of a sly bitch.  If I hadn’t been tipped off, I wouldn’t have thought to check your hair.”  She scraped at one of the stones until it came loose and then crushed it between her thumb and nail.  It made a dull cracking sound. “It’s amazing how small they can make bugs now.”

Fear nearly choked me but I still managed to force out a few words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She dropped the clip and shoved me down.  “Don’t play dumb little spy, it’s very unbecoming.

I tried to wriggle away.  “I’m not…I don’t…just let me go.”

She grabbed my wrists and forced them over my head, using the rest of my body to hold me down.  “You know what we do to spies on Varcia don’t you.”

“I’m not a spy!” I tried to struggle, but she was strong and heavy and I couldn’t get free.

“If you’re not a spy, then what are you? A low level bureaucrat in over her head? A sacrificial lamb?  They wouldn’t have used you for something this risky if you mattered at all.”

She nipped at my ear, at first lightly and then harder.  “The way I see it I can do anything I want to you and no one’s going to complain.  You could even disappear and your embassy wouldn’t breathe a word.”

I know I whimpered.  I was a hair's breadth from begging for my life, but I knew that if I did that all would be lost.  “If you wanted me dead, you wouldn’t have brought me here.”

She slowly nipped lower, “No, I wouldn’t have.  I’d have given you to the Empress, she does enjoy torturing spies to death.  It’s one of her hobbies.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I imagine that’s rather obvious,”

She bit down on my neck hard as she could.  

I cried out and fought to free myself, finally managing to knee her in the stomach.  She lost her grip on my wrists and I struck at her ineffectively.

“Are you really going to fight me little diplomat?”

“Let me go!”

“Funny, just a minute ago you were willing to fuck me for king and country.”  Her laughter was like ice in my ears.

“Go to hell.”  I dug my nails in hard, not that it did me any good.  

She caught the front of my dress in one hand and ripped it open, the delicate silk shredding beneath her fingers.

“I’ve already been there plenty of times you Terra Nuevan bitch. I faced down hell a thousand times on the battlefields you never saw.”

She took a scrap of the dress and caught at my wrists again, even as I fought her.  It didn’t take long for her to bind them together over my head, so she could hold them down with one arm.

“Scream all you want, no one in this house will help you.”

She bit my left breast, at first lightly and then so hard I screamed in spite of myself.  She bit me in a lot of places, as I cursed and writhed. When my bra wouldn’t give to her tugs, she slipped a knife from her boot and made short work of it.

I went still at the feel of the cold metal against my skin.  She made a very shallow cut across the top of one breast and then the other.  She brought it up to trace the outline of my throat.

“Now, do I have to hurt you more, to make you realize I’m serious, or will you be a good girl?”

My breath was ragged but I found words, “If I let do what you want, will you let me live?”

The blade nicked my throat, “Oh honey, if you think death is the worst I can do to you, you haven’t lived very much.”

As quickly as the blade was there, it was gone.   She pressed her lips against mine as she shoved her hand between my legs.

I tried to cross my legs against her, but she shoved her knees between mine and forced me open.  Her fingers found me again and this time she pressed in. I was still slick from kissing her in the car.

“No, please no.”

She got two fingers into my tense, resisting body.  It hurt, it was intense and then she curled her fingers.  Her thumb was rough and brutal against my clit. I couldn’t escape, couldn’t get away.  I turned my face and closed my eyes, lost somewhere in a haze of pain and sensation.

She grabbed my face roughly and turned it back.  “Don’t pretend you don’t want me, you little bitch.  I can feel how wet you are.”

I bit the palm of her hand.  

She jerked it back and slapped me. “Fucking bitch,” she spat.  “Behave or I’ll do worse.”

I went still and let her fuck me.  She pressed another finger into me and I gasped at the fullness.

Then as suddenly as she had started she stopped. Was she done?  

“Stay,” she hissed as she pulled away and sat up.  I watched her reach into a bedside drawer for something.  I didn’t wait to find out what was in there. I quickly brought my bound hands in front of myself and rolled away from her.  

My bare feet hit the floor and I bolted for the door.  I didn’t get far. She slammed me into the wall. She grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me back to the bed and threw me onto it.  

I landed on my stomach, her weight pushing me down.

“I was going to be gentle for this next part.  Now I don’t think I’m not going to be that nice at all.”

I felt something cool and plastic, that I was not expecting, brush against my leg.  I gasped.

She grabbed my hips and yanking them up.  “Don’t tell me you’ve never been fucked like this before.”  She pressed the dildo against my cunt and it felt huge.

I panicked and struggled, “Yes, but not this big, please no.”

She shoved into me all the way to the hilt.  The toy really was enormous. I had never felt so stretched before.  I cried out and collapsed under her as she fucked me, quick and deep.  I was utterly overwhelmed in the face of pleasure and pain. I barely even realized the sounds I was making.

“Take it you fucking Terra Nuevan whore,” she hissed, “you fucking spy.” She yanked the toy from me roughly and repositioned it against another part of me.  

Panic shot through my hazy brain.  “Wait, no. You’ll tear me apart.”

“Give me one reason that I shouldn’t fuck you in the ass completely dry.”

“Because you said you wouldn’t kill me, if I behaved.”

She reached around to roughly pinch one of my nipples between her fingers.

“I did not say that and you have hardly been behaving.”

“Please.”

“Beg me to use lube.”

My pride broke.  I didn’t want to hurt any more than I was already hurting.  “Please use lube, please.”

She kissed my back, “good girl.”

I heard a bottle open and then slick fingers was pressed against my ass.  I forced myself to relax and lie still and she worked one and then two fingers into me.  I had had anal sex before, but never like this. I knew how much damage she could cause if she choose to, and lay completely still.

I moaned in discomfort when she added a third finger, fucking me slowly and deeply.  Then she grabbed my hips, forcing me back up onto my hands and knees as she penetrated me.  

It was a slow, agonizing stretching process.  I didn’t think the toy would fit, but she took her time adding more and more pressure until at last I felt the cool leather of the harness she was wearing was against my ass.

She pulled out slowly and then eased back in.  It was intense and overwhelming. I had never felt so stretched in my life.  She pulled out one more time and then, without warning, she slammed into me hard.

I gasped. Her hands tightened on my hips and she fucked me hard.  My hands scrambled at the sheets and I collapsed underneath her. She dragged me back up, fucking me harder.

I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt the tears on my hands.   

“get yourself off,” she hissed in my ear.

“I….I can’t.”

She slapped my ass hard.

“Fucking do it, because this doesn’t stop until you come.”

I struggled to balance and went down to my elbows.  I reached under myself and found my cunt. It was as wet as it had ever been.  I pressed my fingers against my clit, quick and hard, as if the motion itself was nothing more than mechanical.  

In spite of everything, I felt an orgasm spark and wash over me.  I cried out and collapsed completely. She fucked me into the mattress until she found some kind of release from the toy. I stayed where I was shuddering from the aftershocks.  She moved away for a moment and I heard her messing with something, probably removing the strap on.

She rolled me back over roughly and I looked up at her wearily.  What more could she possibly want from me. “You don’t think you’re done do you?” she asked.

“Please no more.”

She leaned over and stroked my hair almost gently, “Sh, sh, just one more thing.  Get up and kneel on the floor.”

“I…”

“Do it and afterwards you can rest,”

Wearily I pushed myself up and slipped from the bed.  She sat on the edge of the bed. I vaguely registered that at some point she had shed her pants before she grabbed my hair and pushed my face between her legs.

I knew what she wanted me to do.  With my eyes closed, it was not hard for my tongue and mouth to find her clit and settle into a rhythm.  She seemed to tug my hair harder every time I got it right. She barely made a sound.

I felt her shudder in orgasm once, but she kept me there until she reached a second.  Then she shoved me away. She stayed where she was for a moment catching her breath, then she stood.

“I will return in a moment.  I would not advise doing anything foolish, the door is guarded and the window is reinforced.”

She walked across the room to the attached bathroom.  After a moment I heard water running. I felt terribly, terribly cold. I grabbed a blanket from the bed and dragged it off to wrap around me before curling up on the floor.

She was gone only a few minutes before she emerged in loose sleeping pants and a dark blue dressing gown.  She tapped the intercom on the wall and said, “I am done with the girl, come fetch her.”

Fear tore at me and I tried to scramble to my feet, nearly stumbling.  She laughed coldly, “Oh, don’t act so frightened. I’m just sending you home.  I don’t kill women I fuck, that would be vulgar.”

She reached foreword and helped me to sit on the edge of the bed, “Now, I have a message to send back to your dear ambassador." She kissed me just below my ear.   “Tell her that if she ever tries to send another bugged spy, I will send back the body. However, if she is interested in a back channel exchange of information she should send you to me again.”

There was a knock on the door.

“Enter.”

Two of her guards came in.

“Take the girl back to the Terra Nuevan Embassy.  Drop her off at the back entrance.”

The guards moved to me quickly, helped me stand.  I stumbled, clutching at the sheet I had wrapped around myself.  They let me keep that at least. I was rushed through the house, down into the courtyard and pushed into the back of a car.  

I huddled in the sheet, still not certain that I was not being taken to my death. When we reached the back gate of the embassy one of the guards leaned over and opened the door.  I scrambled out, stumbling when my bare feet hit the asphalt. I fell to the ground as the car pulled away. I didn’t bother to stand. There was the sound of yelling and one of my embassies own guards carried me inside.


	2. Into the Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally planned to make every story in this series a oneshot but there was interest in a follow up on this one so I figured why not. Enjoy.

When the ambassador sent for me, I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave my quarters. I’d spoken to no one beyond the ambassador’s personal secretary who had debriefed me the night before. I had no idea what they were going to do with me now, send me home? Simply have me return to work as if nothing had happened? Surely rumors were flying. I had been carried inside wrapped in a sheet the night before. All that I knew was that if I wanted any part of my career to survive I had to answer the ambassador’s summons.

I forced myself to stand, to shower, to dress. My body ached and felt almost as it wasn’t really my own anymore. I felt vulnerable and exposed during the short walk across the compound from the staff quarters to the office block. Instead of being shown to the ambassador’s office, I was led to a small windowless room and told to wait.

It felt almost like an interrogation cell, nothing but a table and two chairs. I wasn’t waiting long before the ambassador swept in. She sat down across from me, as if we were simply having a normal meeting.

“You’ll have to forgive me for not seeing you in my office. I’m having it swept for bugs daily, but I still haven’t ruled out that it wasn’t somehow the source of our last information breach.”

I nodded almost numbly. “So…you don’t know how she found out about the clip then? We don’t know why the mission failed.”

She tilted her head slightly, “Oh, I wouldn’t call the mission a failure.”

I just stared at her blankly.

The ambassador sighed, “We now know for certain that we have some kind of information leak at a very high level. Also…” she leaned forward slightly, “We finally have a back channel for information on the Varcian military.”

“What?” I had not included the last things that General Harper had said to me in my report. I hadn’t said much at all really. My stomach knotted and I felt very sick.  

“Honestly, you do realize the bugs on the clip picked up the audio of everything that happened. General Harper didn’t destroy the bugs until after she sent you back. I’m certain that was deliberate on her part, some sort of power play.”

I began to shiver and wrapped my arms around myself. The ambassador had heard what happened, she’d heard everything. I wanted to curl up as small as I could, to run away and hide. Pain and humiliation and fear washed over me.

“None of that now. Eyes on me.”

I forced myself to look at her.

She gave me a sort of careful, closed lip smile. “There now, no falling apart. You are too valuable for that now.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You are our contact with General Harper. We’ll be sending you back to her to get information. We need to see if she’s really serious about the offer of an information exchange.”

I pushed my chair back so hard it fell over when I jumped to my feet, “No. I can’t. I won’t.”

“Sit down!”

I didn’t. “No, you can’t ask me to…let her rape me again.”

“Stop being dramatic and sit down before I have one of the guards make you.” There was nothing kind in her face, only cool disinterest.

I sat, unable to control my trembling.

She considered me for a long moment. “Honestly, I really did take you for less of a wilting flower than this. You agreed to seduce a woman and hide a bug. Do you realized how exceedingly lucky you are that the general decided to play with you instead of have you shot as a spy?”

“You put me in that position in the first place.”

“Yes because it is my job. I constantly put others and myself in danger for the sake of our planet. I do my duty. I thought you were capable of doing yours.”

“And if I’m not?”

Her lips thinned, “I can have you thrown out of the diplomatic service and sent home. It would be the end of your career and you would lose your pension.”

For all my fear and hurt I saw my life fragment before my eyes. Years of school and training would be for nothing. I had striven for nothing else for almost as long as I could remember. I wouldn’t even have much chance of a civilian career, if I were thrown out of the diplomatic corps instead of leaving honorably after a term of service. I wouldn’t be able to pay for my mother’s medical care anymore. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even be able to support myself.

“You would really do that, just because I’m refusing to go let myself be hurt by that monster again?”

“Yes.” She would the bitch. She would without a flicker of guilt.

“And if I do everything you say?”

“You’ll be promoted and have your pick of your next placement when you are no longer needed here.”

I felt sick but I knew I had lost. “It seems I’ve no choice then.”

 

The summons from General Harper came three weeks later. I passed that time in a state of intense anxiety. I had indeed been expected to return to my normal duties and it was all I could do to get through most days. Several guards had seen me dumped at the gate but somehow no rumors flew. I suspected the ambassador, or at least her secretary, had had a word with them about keeping their mouths shut. embassy staff gossiped as bad as old biddies about anything going on between staff within the embassy but knew to keep deathly silent about  anything even remotely related to covert operations.

My friends noticed something was wrong. I lied and told them my mother had taken a turn for the worse and I didn’t want to talk about it. After that they left me to myself.

When the summons came it was an odd sort of relief. There are few things worse than living in fear. I numbly accepted the tin of mint candy that the ambassador handed me in the small windowless room. It was from a local brand.

“Another bug?”

“No, it has a hidden data chip in the lid. You are to give it to her.  She’ll give you something similar in return.”

I nodded.

“The embassy car will take you at seven tonight. Wear something nice.”

“Why, she’ll probably just cut it off of me like my last dress.” For all my hurt there was a spark of anger and resentment beginning to coil inside of me.

She didn’t even flinch. “Then wear something easily cut apart.”

 

In the end I picked the dress I liked least. It was the first dress I had bought on Varcia, a simply cut bit of synthosilk I thought would be sufficient for formal functions before I realized how lavish their balls actually were. I’d ended up spending my first ball painfully aware that I looked like a poor country cousin and never worn the dress again. What was worse, it was red, a color it turned out that Varcians seldom if ever wore. I considered burning it back then, I knew after the coming night I certainly would.

The driver said nothing when I climbed into the back of one of the town cars without diplomatic plates that the embassy kept for use when they didn’t want to attract undue attention.

He dropped me off, not at the front of the house, as would have benefited an actual guest, but at a back gate, pulling away before I was buzzed in. I wondered if he actually intended to come back for me.

It was a short walk to the servants entrance at the back of the house. A stone faced housekeeper let me in and ushered me through a series of halls. She rapped on a door once and guided me into what looked like an informal sitting room.

The decor was very simple and mostly prone to muted blues. There was a table and two low couches in the Varcian fashion. The table was laid with wine as well as some cheese, crackers and olives. I almost laughed. We weren’t going to actually sit down and eat something were we?

Then a flash of motion caught my attention. General Harper was sitting in a chair set off a bit, reading an actual paper book. I had not seen one of those in many years and certainly not outside of a museum. Exactly how wealthy was she?

She wasn’t wearing her uniform, although the grey civilian trousers and white shirt seemed almost more austere somehow.

“You’re late. I was starting to wonder if you would actually come.”

“I’m fairly certain my ambassador would have sent me bound hand and foot if I refused.”

“For the value of what I’m giving her, I’m sure she would have if I asked.”

A cold shiver ran through me and it must have shown on my face.

She stood and bowed in what seemed to me a mockery of good manners. “Sit, eat, drink.”

I sat. She took a seat on the settee across from the one I chose. She poured wine into two glasses and held one out to me. Not know what else to do, I took it. I wasn’t worried that she’d drug me, there wasn’t really any point. She knew she could already force me to do whatever she wanted.

“To a very useful alliance,” she raised her glass.

I simply drank from mine. The wine was surprisingly good but it could have been paint thinner for all I cared. I drained the glass, maybe if I got drunk enough what lay ahead wouldn’t be as horrible.

When I lowered the glass, she raised an eyebrow but refilled it.

“Shame to waste good wine like that. You’ve always struck me before as the sort of woman to savor things.”

“We both know that isn’t what you want from me.” With shaking hands I clicked open my purse and tugged out the mint tin.  I couldn’t meet her eyes as I held it out.

She took it and set it aside. I waited but she offered nothing in return. I was forced to look up.

“She said you’d give me something.”

The smile she offered reminded me of an illustration of a wolf in an old fairytale table book my mother used to read to me when I was little. A kindly woodsman rescued the girl in that story, no one was coming to save me.

“Impatient aren’t you.”

“I’ve never liked games of pretend.”

“You’d rather I treated you like the paid for whore you are?”

Pride rose up inside of me fierce and desperate. “I’m no whore.”

“Just because your ambassador is selling you, insead of you selling yourself, doesn’t change what she’s made you.”

I had never been so nearly moved to violence before in my life. I clenched my hands so tightly that I feared my nails would draw blood from my palms.

She saw it and her smile grew, showing her teeth. “Oh, you are a fierce little thing, such fire in those dark eyes of yours.”

I’d have been wiser to have bared my throat from the first. She didn’t just want a rabbit to chase, she wanted a fox that would turn and fight. In my anger I was giving her what she wanted.

She reached for me, half standing to lean over the table. I scrambled backwards, nearly knocking over my own couch. “If you think me a whore, then at least give me what you’ve promised first.

She laughed in amusement. “Sly little vixen.” She reached into a pocket and retrieved a pen. “Let it not be said I took you without recompense.”

When I reached for it she grabbed my wrist and yanked me into a punishing kiss. I would have fallen forward onto the table had she not caught me with her other arm.

She tugged me fully to my feet when she broke the kiss. “Now come along. I’ll expect you to behave this time.”

I barely managed to shove the pen into my bag before she was leading me by the wrist into her bedroom. She closed the door and pressed me against it, still kissing me roughly, pressing her body against my own. Panic consumed me and it took everything I had not to struggle, not to fight. I wouldn’t give her that again, I wouldn’t.

She got a hand in the front of my dress and tugged hard. It ripped with the ugly sound of shredding synthetic fiber. She caught a breast in her hand, slipping her fingers beneath the red fabric of my bra.

“Cheap underwear too,” she whispered in my ear. “You play your part well.”

“Why would I wear anything I valued for you?” So much for not baring my teeth.

She took that as an invitation and tried to tear the bra. That actually hurt as as the straps dug into my shoulders and side. The flimsy plastic clasp at the front cracked and she pushed the ruined thing down my body. At least she didn’t feel the need to do anything more to my underwear than push them away with the rest.

I was naked, save my shoes, unremarkable flats. With an actual lover I would have toed the damn things off so as to not look ridiculous. I had no inition of further undressing for her.  She took a step back and considered me. She took her time and that made it worse. I fought down the urge to cover myself.

Then she sat down on the edge of the bed and motioned me over with a curl of her fingers.

“I think you know what to do.”

I did, although I hated myself for it. Unbuckling her pants and using my mouth to pleasure her was almost worse than when she touched me. At least being touched was a passive act. To touch her, that was an active compliance. Just as I had that first night, I still did as I was told. I wasn’t afraid she’d kill me this time but I still didn’t dare refuse her, not when I was naked in the house of an enemy. She pulled my hair so hard when she found her release that tears came to my eyes.

I sat back, whipping my mouth on the back of my hand. For half an instant, I almost hoped that maybe this time she would ask no more of me. Even as I thought it though, I knew she would.

“Come up on the bed, we’ll start with you on your back.”

I obeyed, lying back on the cool sheets. Somewhat ridiculously it occurred to me that they were the same color as the one she’d sent me home in. I wondered absently how many sets she had.

Then she was over me, mouth against mine, fingers pressing against my center to rub rough circles over my clit.

I gasped at the intensity of the sensation. She dipped lower and brought the slickness back up.

“You’re wet for me,” she nipped my ear as I began to writhe under her. She was pressing too hard and it was just to much, bordering on painful. I’d have stopped an actual lover the moment she’d begun such a rough motion. I’d always had a sensitive clit and it was easy for me to get overstimulated there. Anything more than a light and gentle touch was unbearable for me.

“Sensitive thing, aren’t you,” she laughed.

I gave no reply. I’d promised myself that I wouldn't beg this time. Wouldn’t give her the pleasure of hearing me asking her to stop when we both knew she wouldn’t. Still it was almost more than I could stand and I couldn’t suppress the soft whimpering sounds I had started to make.

I could feel my body starting to shudder. I was going to come, even as it felt like I was being burned by a live wire. I wasn’t sure if it was a relief or a frustration when she suddenly stopped. I let out a breath and slumped against the bed.

She shoved two and then three fingers into me, fucking me as roughly as she brought her other hand to torture my clit again.

I covered my mouth with both hands to stifle my scream. She fucked me through one shuddering orgasm and then another.

I lay panting, struggling for breath when she pulled away. I could hear her opening a drawer, I supposed she was going for the strap on. I really hoped she didn’t want to fuck me in the ass again. The sound of a lube bottle being opened rather disillusioned me of that hope.

I was somewhat confused when I felt her nudged a pillow under my lower back and then resume fucking me with three fingers. The addition of a fourth gave me a vague idea of what she was up to. Even with lube, four left me feeling stretched.

I knew the answer before I asked, but I did anyway. “What are you doing?”

She actually smirked,  “Getting ready to fist you obviously.”

“I….”

“Seriously, don’t try saying you never have before. Apparently you’ve done it with three of the female marines guarding your embassy.”

I almost jerked away from her. “The hell do you know that?” It was true but still.

“Come on, even you can’t be so naive you didn’t think soldiers wouldn’t gossip?”

I’d have just stared at her, except she chose that moment to slightly curl her fingers inside of me.  I made a very undignificed moan.

She kissed one of my breasts, briefly sucking and biting the nipple before drawing back. “If it helps, they didn’t actually gossip to anyone outside your embassy, just with other guards during late night shifts.”

Wait, had she just admitted to me that the Varcians had one of the guard posts bugged?

She withdrew her fingers enough to fold her thumb into her palm. “Don’t get excited, your people found the guard house bugs a week ago. We never got anything more out of it than amusement.”

“Wait,” panic took me the moment I felt the widest part of her wrist pressing against my entrance.

She didn’t press hard, but she kept pressing and it hurt. I dug my hands into the sheets, fighting down the instinct to strike at her. My body tensed with fear. “Please, I can’t, not like this.”

She used her other hand to twist a nipple, “yes you can. You’ve willingly opened your body to enough soldiers before.”

“Never an enemy.”

Apparently that was exactly what she wanted to hear. She turned her wrist just enough to fix the angle and slid into me. There was a sharp flash of pain and I cried out, not caring anymore if anyone heard. Hell if her staff had heard me scream and beg the last time, they wouldn’t be troubled this time would they?

I lay panting beneath her, my body trembling.

“Good girl” She kissed my forehead and the gesture felt obscenely intimate. She didn’t give me long to adjust, beginning to move her hand slowly but firmly inside of me.

I covered my face, hiding my eyes but not trying to fight my moans and screams anymore. Pleasure and other sensations washed over me, all tinged with an edge of pain. I was beyond caring about anything anymore.

She fucked me harder than I would have let any woman I willingly bedded. When she brought her other hand to my clit, it truly was too much. I sobbed and spasmed my orgasm.

She tried to draw a second one from me as I lay trembling but soon realized that I was spent. She eased her hand from my body, wiping it on my stomach.

She truly surprised me for the first time that evening when she laid down beside me and pulled me into her arms.

I was too lost to know what I felt, beyond that I did not object to the warmth. It seemed a cruel parody of the many times a woman had held me after such an act before.

She kissed the back of my neck. “Apparently the marines weren’t exaggerating. Truly you picked the wrong profession.”

I should have kept my mouth shut, but something inside of me just couldn’t. “Who hurt you? You can’t have been born this cruel.”

Instead of being insulted she actually chuckled and drew me closer. “That little spy is a story far too long and sordid to tell in a single night. Believe me though, there are far worse creatures in this universe than I.”

I almost said that I doubted that, then I thought of the cold eyed ambassador that had send me back into her arms. I forgave General Harper nothing, but she was not the only woman I hated or feared.

After a time she stirred. “I doubt you are either brave or foolish enough try and murder me in my sleep but I’d rather not risk it. Gather your things and I will send you home.”

I pulled away from her and shivered in the cool air of the room. “I can take your sheet again, but surely it would be cheaper to give me some old clothes.”

She sat up, drawing the aforementioned sheet about herself. “I suppose my housekeeper might complain if I make a habit of sending off expensive lenin. She’s odd about that sort of thing. Take a shirt and some pants from the closet if you want then.”

I found a grey shirt and some sweatpants among the uniforms in the sparsely filled walk in closet. I had no interest in reclaiming my ruined dress or underclothes, let the damn housekeeper find them and feel troubled, but I took up my purse and toed my shoes back on. I felt almost comical, wearing a shirt that hung so loosely and pants that were too long. It did not match the situation at all.

As I had dressed, she’d left the bed to make a call on an intercom. “The guards will be waiting for you outside.”

I turned to go. She caught my wrist, pulling me back to her. The last kiss she gave me then was as a demanding as the first. “Tell you ambassador that if she wishes to keep this channel open she will send you once a week at this same time. I will let her know through you when I have more information to trade.”

Before I could protest she opened the door of the room and pushed me through. I stood for a moment in the hallway before two guards appeared. They quietly led me back through the maze of halls, out the back door and to the gate where the car from my own embassy was waiting.

I slid into the back for the silent drive, my purse clutched in my lap. It took everything I had not to open the window and throw the preshiouse pen out.

 

I waited a few days until I wasn’t sore anymore, then I took one of the embassy marines back to my room. General Harper had said three marines had gossiped about me. In my time at the embassy though I’d slept with four guards and I was fairly sure that Eli was the one that had stayed silent. I told her exactly what I wanted her to do to me. When she touched me too roughly, I asked her to be gentler and she was.

When I felt overwhelmed and told her to stop, she did, looking up from between my legs in mild confusion. I felt safe for the first time in days and told her to keep going, tangling my hands in the soft curls of her dark hair.

For an instant, I felt as if I had control over my life and body again. It lasted until my orgasm crashed over me. She worriedly brushed my hair from my face and held me as I cried.

“Sophie, what’s wrong?”  

I just shook my head and cried harder.

She stayed with me until I had exhausted myself. I’m not a pretty crier but she didn’t seem to notice. I saw nothing in her kind eyes but genuine concern.

“I’m fine, really, I’m fine,” I managed

She didn’t believe me but didn’t press. I wondered if she’d heard any rumors, but if she had, she showed no indication of it.

“If you want to talk, about anything, I’m here,” she looked so earnest. Guilt tugged at my stomach, I’d used her and I couldn’t even tell her why. I had wanted to somehow reclaim my sense of self possession and instead I’d cried and worried an honest woman.

In the end she had to leave for guard duty, departing with a concerned glance over her shoulder. I curled up alone. I knew then that as long as General Harper had her hooks in me, I would not be able to bed any other woman. I couldn’t risk breaking down like I just had again.


	3. The Baying of the Hounds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure where I'm going with this story but have another chapter anyway.

Of course General Harper found a way to escalate things. I don’t know why I was so surprised to find a second woman waiting for me when her housekeeper showed me into that accursed sitting room. 

She was young, perhaps of an age with me, and still wearing her uniform as if she had come directly from her other duties. I knew just enough about the Varcian military to recognize that  gold stripes on the left side of her chest marked her as a lieutenant. 

She was strikingly attractive with the dark curls and the wide green eyes so common to Varcians. Her hair was cut military short but that only served to emphasise the classical shape of her face and high cheekbones. She had the fit but not overly muscled look one might expect of an officer who had a desk job but still worked out. 

From the evaluating look she gave me and then somewhat more adoring one she turned back to General Harper, I realized that the general had a very different sort of sets of hooks in her than she had in me. In some ways it make me fear her more than General Harper, dogs of war are far more dangerous than their handlers. 

The general stood and offered me her usual mockery of a bow. “Sophie, so good of you to join us. Let me introduce you to Samantha, she will be joining us for the evening.” 

No last names then. I was still sure I would still be able to look up who the stranger was later from the memory of her face. I took a steadying breath before I said. “This was not the agreement.” 

She gave me that cold, calculating smile of hers. “It was agreed you would come to me once a week.” 

“To you, not anyone else.” 

“I doubt your superiors will object.” 

“It’s my own objection that concerns me. I will not do this.” I took a step back, ready to reach for the door and bolt if she tried to stop me. I doubted I would get far but even I had limits.

“Then you will go home empty handed and without the information required for the prisoner exchange.” 

“What?”

“Your superior did not tell you? It’s rather simple really. We’ve got one of your people’s little spies squirreled away in a dark cell here and back on Terra Nueva your people have one of ours. For the sake of mercy, both sides have agreed to an exchange rather than executions. It must be done simultaneously and you were supposed to bring me your half of the details tonight.” 

That explained what was in the box of matches the ambassador had given me and why she had been so emphatic when she’d told me to be on my “best behavior,” when I went to General Harper that night. Whatever might be said of me, I wasn’t going to doom some poor captured spy.

I let my hands fall to my side.“Has anyone ever told you that you are an utterly heartless bitch?” 

“You’re hardly the first lovely. Now will you be good tonight or should I plan on tying you up again?” she sounded far too pleased with herself. 

“It’s not necessary,” I replied coldly. 

“Then sit, drink.”

I stared at the table and the bottle of wine. I doubted there was enough wine in the world to numb me to what lay ahead. 

Instead I set the book of matches down on the table and turned towards the bedroom. “I’d rather just get it over with.” 

I didn’t look back as I turned the knob and stepped into the dimly lit room. I was sick of Harper cutting away my clothes, I’d rid myself of them first. My hands shook as I reached behind myself and unzipped my dress, I let it fall to the floor, not caring enough to hang it up or fold it. I was reaching back to unclasp my bra when I heard steps on the hard wooden floor. I didn’t look up as I let the bra fall the same way as the dress. 

“My, she is a lovely thing,” in any other circumstance the young woman’s voice would have been seductive, rich and sweet as caramel. 

“Proud as well, it’s what makes humiliating her so delicious” answered the general.   

I did raise my face then and glared. My anger gave me courage I had thought I’d long since lost. “You’ve hurt me, dear general but you’ve never humiliated me. To be humiliated is to be made less than one is and you have never made me less than myself.”

The lieutenant looked to General Harper, as if unsure how she was supposed to react to my defiance. Harper gave her a smile that showed her incisors, “She’s has a talented tongue as well, I welcome you to silence it and put it to better uses.” 

Given her marching orders the soldier prowled towards me like a hound approaching a cornered fox. “Does she bite?” 

“She hasn’t yet, then again you never know what a woman will do if pushed far enough.” Harper sounded like she hoped I would. She sat down in the room’s only chair to watch the tableau unfold before her.

Instinctevely I took a step back. That put me against the wall as the lieutenant approached. I had nowhere to run. She placed an arm on either side of me, trapping me against the wall, leaning down to consider me. I was intensely aware just how much shorter and slighter I was by comparison. 

“You going to fight me then lovely?” 

“Not with my teeth.” 

She stole whatever further retort I might have uttered when I crushed our lips together. There was no gentleness in her touch and she seemed soley intent on simply getting a reaction out of me.

She grabbed my wrists, forcing them over my head and then held them with a one handed a crushing grip. She brought her other hand down to grope a breasts and then painfully twist a nipple, bringing a nearly startled yelp of pain to my lips. She nipped at the skin where my neck met my shoulder, at first lightly and then bit down, hard enough she likely drew blood. 

I cried out and began to struggle in earnest, trying to tug my wrists free, but she had too solid a grip on me.

“Easy Sam,” I heard General Harper chuckle, “Don’t mark her anywhere that can’t be covered.”

The lieutenant looked over her shoulder, “And where she can?” 

“Do as you will.” 

That was all the permission she needed. She caught my lips as she dug her short nails down my side. It fucking hurt and tears sprang to the sides of my eyes. Over the next few minutes she almost systematically clawed and bit and twisted as much of chest and shoulders as she could get at while still pinning me by my wrists. From the way she kept looking back I knew that she was doing it as much for General Harper’s benefit as her own desire.  

When she grew bored of that game she used her knee to force my knees open and brought her free hand lower and tore away my underwear. She seemed slightly surprised when her fingers found me wet. She actually drew back her hand to check the shimmer of slickness in the dim light. “Are you getting off on this? You really are a little slut aren’t you.” 

“If this his how you usually touch women, I’m not surprised you mistake anything that’s not fear for arousal.” I knew I would regret the words as soon as I spoke them but they rose to my lips anyway. 

That earned me a growl. She did not appreciated being made to look a fool before her general. She slammed me against the wall again, shoving two and then three fingers into me roughly. She didn’t even try to touch my clit, just thrust into me as hard as she could. When she forced our mouth together again she bit my lip and I tasted blood. So much for not leaving any visible marks. I was short on breath by the time she pulled back and gasping too much to even attempt to find anything witty to say. 

She tore pleasure from me along with the pain. For all her brutality, she did seem to know what she was doing. She began to curl her fingers inside of me with each thrust, pressing hard against the front of my inner walls. 

“Go on then, scream you little whore.” 

I did not scream. Even as I felt an orgasm fighting to spark through me I fought it down. I met her gaze with angry defiant eyes. She could do what she wanted to me but I was no one’s whore, much less hers. 

Anger twisted her beautiful face and she shifted her hand to finally press her thumb against my clit as she fucked me. She would take what she wanted from my body and she did. My release arched my back and I cried out, a frantic gasping moan that was anything but dignified. 

I caught a glimpse of her looking back towards General Harper with a smile of triumph on her face before I closed my eyes and finished shuddering. I let my body go limp after that, forcing her to either fully hold me up with one hand or let me fall. She opted for the second. 

The wood of the floor was cool, if rather hard, against my burning skin. By the time I felt like opening my eyes, Sam had already crossed the room to Harper and was kissing her hungrily. 

When they broke the kiss, Harper whispered something to her. Obediently the lieutenant fell to her knees and began to undo her supperios belt. 

My legs felt weak but I still managed to stand. I snatched up my discarded dress and headed towards the door. 

General Harper was not so distracted that she missed the flicker of movement, even through partially lidded eyes. 

“Come back little spy, I am nowhere near done with you this evening.”

I paused in my step.

“Go lie on the bed and wait,” she let her eyes slide closed as she pulled at the lieutenant’s hair hard enough to surely cause pain. She didn’t doubt that I would obey for even an instant.

If it had been only my career on the line, I would have kept going. It wasn’t though. Someone else's life hung in the balance. I would likely never meet the Terra Nuevan spy the Varcians had locked away somewhere but for the grace of the goddesses he or she could have been me. General Harper could have easily sent me to be tortured to death that first night she caught me with the bugs. I let the dress slip from my fingers and went to the bed. 

I stretched out, closed my eyes, and willed myself anywhere else. I couldn’t though, even just the feel of the quality of the sheets beneath my naked skin reminded me of exactly where I was. I would have never imagined that I would develop a hatred of fine linen. 

It was not long before they finished. Harper made no more sound when she found her pleasure than she had before. I heard them stand and the soft murmur of a conversation. There was the rustle of clothing, the squeak of a drawer. I knew I wouldn’t like whatever new cruelty General Harper had come up with but I felt no need to give her the pleasure of letting her see me watch her preparations with dread.  

I felt the bed shift as she stretched out beside me. The brush of her lips against my cheek, as softly as a lover, nearly made me jump out of my skin. 

“You’ve your marine friends to thank for giving me the idea for what we’re about to do to you next.” 

My stomach clenched in aprehnsion. “Not everything that soldiers brag about to each other is true.” 

“Oh, the two who did this with you didn’t actually brag to anyone else. They just really liked recounting together what they did with you the night before. They talked a lot while they were fucking each other in the guard house, even though they probably should have been actually keeping watch. Your embassy really needs to improve its security.”

The  embassy did but that was the least of my problems at the moment. 

She must have seen what she wanted in my eyes, probably fear, because she smiled and stroked the side of my face. “I’m even going to be nice and let you choose who takes your ass and who your cunt.”

I sat up, forcing my face to remain neutral. I noticed then that she had shed her clothes and put on a leather harness with a moderately sized dildo. Sam, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, had done the same. She was looking at Harper with need still clearly written on her features. 

I didn’t need any time to give my answer. Considering how roughly the lieutenant already fucked me that evening I didn’t want her anywhere near a part of my anatomy where that same kind of treatment could cause lasting harm.

“Her at the front and you at the back then,” the words felt like ash in my mouth. General Harper had already known what my answer would be, she just enjoyed forcing me to give it, to take an active role in choosing some part of what was to be done to me.

Harper nodded and then beconned Sam closer, pulling the younger woman into a deep kiss before telling her. “Lie back.” 

Then she nudged me. “Start fucking yourself on her.” 

The lieutenant actually smirked when I straddled her. I wanted to slap her, although I had never raised a hand to anyone in my life. I hated her so much in that moment. Riding a lover had always been one of my favorite positions, one that had made me feel powerful and in control, now it was just one more thing I was being compelled to do unwillingness.

I noticed a small lube bottle on the bed, probably meant for what Harper planned to do to me. It was a kind safe to use in both places so I picked it up and took my time methodically slicking myself with my own fingers and then Sam’s dildo. 

“Not wet enough anymore?” she asked smuggly. 

“I’d rather not risk my cunt going dry in the middle of things. I doubt either you or the General will have the courtesy to stop even if I beg.”

I lined up the toy, rising up on my knees to slowly sink down onto it. The dildo was of a fairly reasonable size but I was tense enough that I still felt the stretch. I know I made a soft gasping sound. 

Sam made a sound herself. Her toy must have been pressing against her clit, or possibly even had a part that went inside of her. Earlier it had been hard to tell with the harness and I hadn’t wanted to look at the damn thing that closely to begin with. 

She reached up to draw me closer, already starting to roll her hips. She had to be on edge after fucking me and servicing Harper without finding any release of her own. 

I did not appreciate when she dug her nails into my back. “Move.”

“Seduction isn’t your strong suit is it?” I snapped back. 

I think she’d have rolled us and shown me exactly what she was good at then, except that was when Harper moved behind me. She ran her fingers over the livid marks Sam had just left on my skin, licking one and kissing another, before pushing me to lean forward over Harper. 

When she pressed a cool, lube slicked finger against my ass, I jolted. She eased the digit into me in spite of how my body tensed against her. 

She began to rub her other hand against my back in wide circles. “You had best try harder to relax little spy or this is going to prove very painful for you.”

I hated her for it but I focused on my breathing and forced my internal muscles to ease. 

She quickly added a second finger. With the dildo already inside of my vagina the feeling of being filled and stretched in a second place was overwhelming. 

The last time I had done such a thing had been in much happier circumstances and  after considerably more prep. Tillie and Lana, two of the embassies marines, were a couple and often liked to invite other women to share their bed. When they’d asked me I’d been delighted. 

The third time we’d fucked, we’d all been a little drunk, at least drunk enough that talking about fantasies got as easy as touching. I’d admitted I’d always wanted to try double penetration, they’d admitted they both had the toys and experience. They’d shown me a very good time that night. At the end of the evening I had fallen asleep curled up between them, utterly sated. 

Sam pinched my nipple and the warmth of the memory vanished. Harper was working up to three fingers and the feeling of stretching and discomfort was almost more than I could bare. It was a relief when she at last withdrew her fingers. 

I had a half breath to rest, then she began to press her toy into me and it was too much. I slumped against Sam, panting for breath. It seemed an eternity before the second dildo was fully sheathed inside of me. 

Harper gave me a moment and then told Sam. “Move.”

I wasn’t able to stay silent as my world was reduced to to a frantic tangle of pain, pleasure and movement. I hoped I woke up the whole household, I hoped anyone who served General Harper had nightmares. I hoped her servants began to fear any woman who could force such sounds from another. 

At the start the two women actually did manage to move in something that was, if not unison, at least vaguely the same rhythm. That didn’t last as Sam’s movements became increasingly frantic. 

Harper leaned forward to stroke Sam’s face, much as she had mine earlier. 

“Come for me soldier.”

And the Lieutenant did, looking past me towards the General like she held all the meaning in creation. Her entire body went rigid with tension and then shook violently. She slumped beneath me when she was done. 

Harper paused her movements, her toy still pressed into me. For an instant I hoped she might be finished. Then she began to move again. “Your not done.” 

I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to Sam or me.

Sam blinked at her dazzidly but obeyed, her thrusts now a good bit slower and more languid. 

The General nipped my ear and whispered. “If you can’t come from just this, then touch yourself. I’ll see you come again before this night is done little spy.”

It tore at my pride but I did as she ordered. It was very awkward to get a hand between Sam and me but I managed. 

As overstimulated as my entire body was, pleasure sparked through me fierce as fire the moment I began to touch myself. Caught between two enemies, I clenched on the hard plastic toys inside of me and came with a scream.

Only then did Harper pull the toy from me. I had interest in doing little more than simply lying sprawled over Sam but the lieutenant was herself close to a second release. She rolled us, pushing me onto my back and slamming the toy into me painfully. I doubt it would have taken her more than a minute to find her orgasm that way but Harper’s laughter caused her to slow her movements. 

“You can get off again fucking her like that if you want, although it seems a bit cruel considering how exhausted the poor thing is, or you can shed the toy and let me fuck you.”

Sam scrambled off of me so quickly she elbowed me in the shoulder. I watched tiredly as she freed herself from the harness and reached for Harper, who had already done the same. The general rolled her onto her back and began to fuck her quickly and expertly with her fingers. 

Nearly instantly the young soldier was moaning and arching beneath her. She clutched at the other woman as if she were the only solid thing in the room. When she came she cried. “Alexandra!” I’d never heard anyone call General Harper by her first name before that moment. 

The general eased her through her tremors and then stretched out beside her, almost tenderly stroking her hair. After a moment she glanced to me, “I trust you have recovered enough to see to me. She seems to be in no state too.” 

Wearily I crawled over and obeyed. It was easy enough. She only wanted my mouth and came quickly. For her the actual physical release of an orgasm seemed to matter considerably less than the pleasure of dragging the same from others in the most brutal ways possible. 

I meant to only lay down for a moment after that but the next thing I knew someone was shaking me. 

“A car is waiting for you little spy.” 

I yawned and slowly forced my aching body to sit up. “Still afraid I’ll strangle you in your sleep?” 

“Very much so,” she pressed a tube of lipstick into my hand. “Here is the information as promised. Tell your ambassador it took some doing to convince the empress that getting one of our own spies back was worth her forgoing the pleasure of torturing one of yours to death.” 

“I’ll tell her,” although I doubted she would care. With the concealed data chip in my hand I collected my purse and wrinkled dress from the floor. A guard showed me out out to the waiting embassy car. 


	4. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I may have a vague idea what I'm doing with this story now although I'm still unsure how to actually end it.

I was so lost in my own concerns that I completely forgot about the Empress’s spring ball until General Harper reminded me the week before.

She was watching me languidly from the bed as I tugged my clothes back on after we had finished for the night. She’d just fucked me but somehow the hunger in her eyes seemed to burn brighter rather than diminish. “Have you bought a dress yet?”

I paused in clasping my bra. “A dress for what?”

“The empress’s ball.”

“What do you care?”

“Just curious, so have you?”

“No, I’ll wear last years gown again. The bloody thing cost enough.” I finally got the damn clasp. I’d worn an old one for fear she’d destroy it and the little metal hook at the back was a bit bent. I reached to collect my dress from where I had laid it over the rooms only chair.

“If it is merely a matter of money…” I hated that sly grin she got sometimes. It never promised anything good for me.   

“I want nothing from you,” I snapped.

“Except information.” To emphasize this point she rolled over to reach into a drawer and retrieve a pen to hold out to me.

Wearily I took a lighter from my purse and set it on the chair before I reached out to take the pen. She caught my wrist. “Tell your ambassador to buy you something pretty for the ball.”

“Tell her yourself if you’re so keen on playing games with her. Honestly I don’t know why you haven’t blackmailed the old bitch into your bed instead of me.”

She chuckled softly as she drew me back down towards the bed, “That would not be half so much fun, besides I am no fool. While you want to claw my eyes out, she actually would.”

I’d thought she was done with me for that evening but she quickly showed me she was not.

When I told the ambassador during out weekly meeting she merely nodded. “I’ll see that appropriate funds are transferred to your account.”

“I think she’s up to something.”

She barely looked up from her papers. “I’d be more worried if she wasn’t.”

“I don’t like it.”

She let out an annoyed breath. “You’re not expected to. Just keep spreading your legs for her and don’t worry about things above your pay grade.”

I had never hated a woman more than I did her in that moment.

On the night of the ball I went with the rest of the embassy staff. The year before I had gone on the arm of one of the embassy marines, Eli. We’d danced half the night. I had no heart for that anymore and very much feared to endanger anyone from my own embassy if Harper saw me with them.

I was fully aware of more than a few concerned glances thrown my way. For all my attempts to hold myself together, I knew that my smile looked plastered on.  More than a few friends had expressed concern for me over the past months. I’d lost the will to force myself to go to most social events and when I looked in the mirror I could see that I had grown thinner. Sooner or later my original explanation that my mother’s health had worsened would cease to function as an excuse. Generally when a woman sickens she must either decline into death, stay the same, or improve. I could not lie and say she had died when she still drew breath and if her health had stabilized surely I would no reason to be so worried.

Oddly enough, although women I had considered friends had largely taken my word that I wanted to be left alone, those I had bedded seemed less willing to. Over the past weeks I had had to fend off the concern of more than a few of my casual lovers, most with genuine offers to talk.

I pushed those thoughts and concerns away that night, I don’t know how else I could have managed to keep my head up through the ball. My gown felt heavy and tight against my body. I’d spend every cent the ambassador have given me on it, I did not wanted that money to linger my account.

It was a fine enough dress, certainly in line with that years fashions and the proper deep shade of blue some actress had popularized. I had no shortage of hoops and ruffles. A deep part of me ached to set the whole damn thing on fire as soon as I got home that night.

Always before, I had favored simple but real jewelry, semi precious stones set in silver or copper. I’d given up on that. That night paste sapphires shone at my throat and wrists and ears resting within settings of painted gold.

It was almost a relief when General Harper finally entered the ballroom. It came as both a reprieve and a torment when she didn’t seek me out at once.

I became concerned when she offered her hand to the youngest member of the embassy staff and danced not one but two dances with her. Sarah Castor was a good natured, if somewhat naive woman. I’d bedded her once when she was newly arrived to the embassy. She’d clung to me with such intensity in the days afterwards that I hadn’t been able to gracefully extricate myself as I usually would have. For lack of love I had offered her friendship and as much assistance as I could. I’d done everything within my power to teach her the inner workings of the embassy and how to navigate utterly baffling foreign planet we lived on. She’d accepted my help and friendship with surprising grace, although sometimes I still caught her casting longing glances in my direction.

My heart knotted in my chest as I watched General Harper turn Sarah about the dance floor. General Harper caught my eyes over Sarah’s shoulder and winked. My blood chilled. I had never realized I could feel so protective towards another grown woman until that moment. Then again, I had never realized how much I might fear another woman until a short time before.

An odd sort of calm descended upon me when General Harper finally sought my hand for a waltz. She didn’t bother with pretense, pulling me far closer than was proper.

“Jealous?” she whispered in my ear.

I tried to think through my answer before I gave it. “Empathetic. Lay another hand on that sweet girl you just danced with and I truly will murder you in your sleep.”

She clicked her tongue, “Such a fierce thing.”

“Merely honest. I make no idle threats.”

“I would expect nothing less of you.”

We waltzed two turns of the ballroom before she led me from the floor, her hand against the small of my back guiding me.

“Come walk in the gardens with me lovely.”

“Are you sure that is wise?”

“Why not?” she had a very firm grip on my arm.

“We might be seen.”

That got a soft chuckle from her. “And what if we are? Let the gossips talk.”

I let her lead me though it seemed to me that it was to nowhere that I wished to go. “A Terra Nuevan diplomat really ought not walk alone with a Varcian General.”

She led us into a beautifully tended garden, full of night blooming flowers. The air was rich with sweet scents and the many artificial lights gave us well illuminated views of tulips and irises. On a better day I would have been amazed by the sight of so many old earth flowers, on that night I was beyond caring.

She pulled me against her. “I don’t know about you beautiful but I’ve no reputation to lose. Even if I were to be caught in the most intimate moment with a lovely thing like you I would only be thought more virile.” What she was far too wise to utter anywhere that there was even a remote chance of being overheard or recorded was that she doubted anyone knowing that we were fucking would also realize we were exchanging information.

“I’m a foreign stateswoman.”

“Who they’ll believe I seduced with my charms.” her smile showed all her teeth. “They might think less of you but not me.”

“And you think the rest of the world so foolish that they’ll judge me an easy whore for a flouncy skirt and you a forgivable cad for a uniform?”

She caught my wrist and pulled me through the carefully tended flower beds towards an artificial waterfall. “It has always been that way for me before, I doubt that is likely to change.”

The tugged me through the brief chill of an artificial waterfall into the dark alcove of a fake cave. She shoved me against the rough plaster of an imitation stone wall.

For half a breath I was startled and then something defiant rose up in me.

“Tell me dear general. Have you ever done this in love?”

“Love?” she said it like a foreign word, even though she spoke in her own language.

“Have you never brought a sweetheart here before?”

Her laughter sounded far less confident than it usually did, “Even I am not bravezen enough to play my games on the palace grounds on any night but this.”

Which told me a great deal. “Have you ever had an honest relationship in your life or can you only desire women you have power over?”

“I have found it does make life much easier. Things like love always lead to complications and weakness.” She began to tug up my skirts, which proved somewhat challenging considering how many layers there were. When she finally got to my underwear, she wasted no time tugging them down and pressing her fingers roughly against my center. In spite of myself I was wet when she began to rub at my clit.

She chuckled softly. “You’re one to judge me little slut, you’re hardly a romantic yourself. You’ve a reputation for bedding any woman in your embassy who’ll have you but not for ever actually dating one.” She emphasized her words by roughly thrusting three fingers into me.

I wasn’t ready and made a gasp of discomfort. She offered my no quarter, fucking me harder, still pressing me back against the wall with her other hand on my shoulder. She pushed down my wrap so that she could nip at the exposed flesh of my neck and shoulders.

I knew things would go easier if I just closed my eyes and surrendered to the moment. There was pleasure, even in her brutal touch. I knew that the moment I did that I would be lost. My defiance was all I had.

“There is no shame in pursuing one’s desires, only in doing so at the expense of others.”

She bit my shoulder hard enough to surely leave a mark. “So you’re the saint and I’m the sinner then?”

“I am no saint but you will never be accused of kindness.”  

“I wouldn’t want to be. Kind women don’t last long in the Varcian military or the empress’s inner circle”

She adjusted her hand, brushing her thumb roughly against my clit with each trust of her fingers.

A gasp rose to my lips unbidden. Even concealed by the waterfall, I feared that I might still be heard. I had endured a great deal in the past weeks and I did not wish to add a public exposure to my list.

When another moan surprised me, I covered my mouth.

She just fucked me harder, like she wanted to drag the sounds out of me.

I could feel my orgasm coiling inside of me. I didn’t try to fight it, I knew that our encounter wasn’t going to end until I came. I bit my palm to suppress the cry that rose to my lips. I still failed to fully stifle the sound.  

It was in that moment that I heard someone calling my name, voice tinted with concern. A moment later Eli stepped through the falling water. I’d have given anything for her not to have seen me like she did then, helpless and shoved against a wall by an enemy. She recognized me even half hidden in the shadows.

She froze in her step, clearly uncertain what she had come upon. “Sophie?”  

General Harper paused in her movements and looked over her shoulder. “This does not concern you.”

“Sophie?” she asked again.

“Go Eli, please just go,” I tried to keep my voice even but I couldn’t keep the sob from it.

She didn’t go.

“You heard her soldier, go.” Harper’s voice was heavy with threat.

Eli held her ground, “Sophie, are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, please leave.” My tone didn’t come anywhere close to matching my words.

She didn’t move.

“Go!” I nearly screamed.

She did leave then, stepping back through the watefaIl. I slumped against the wall and gave up my fight to hold back my tears.

Harper began to move her fingers inside of me again. “Lover of yours?”

“I hate you, I fucking hate you so much.”

She leaned close enough to whisper in my ear, “Perhaps I should ask your ambassador to send her along with you next time.”

“No.” I couldn't bear her touch for another instant. I shoved her away from me as hard as I could. She stumbled back a step but caught herself before she hit the ground.

I tried to bolt for the opening of the waterfall but she caught my wrist and slammed me against the wall, twisting my arm painfully. “Ah, there’s the fight in you that I like so much.”

I struggled until the pain in my arm grew too sharp and then I went still.

“Good girl,” she whispered in my ear. She kept me trapped like that as she used her other hand to tug up my skirts and shove her fingers back into my cunt from behind. She was anything but gentle.

She twisted my arm hard enough to send sharp spikes of pain through me and I gasped in agony.

“Go on,” she hissed in my ear. “Scream like the whore you are.”

“Go to hell.”

“Scream.” She twisted harder and I did.

That was apparently what she wanted because she let go of my arm then, pressing her hand against my shoulder for leverage as she kept fucking me.

I would have thought an orgasm was impossible under such circumstances, I was wrong. When she curled her fingers against my front walls my body clenched against her and I sobbed out an orgasm that was more release than pleasure.

She released me then and I collapsed to the ground, too daze to even pull down my dress to cover myself.

She leaned back against the wall, unbuckling her pants and pulling me to her.

I was too weary to fight again, so I did as I was expected. I barely had to bring my tongue to her clit before she tensed and pulled at my hair, undoing an hours worth of careful braiding and pinning.

She stayed as she was for a moment, catching her breath, before she buckled her pants. After a time she helped me back to my feet and used a silk handkerchief from one of her pockets to wipe my face.

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to go back into the ball. You’ve smeared your makeup.” Never mind my ruined hair, the dirt on my dress, the marks on my neck or the likely blossoming bruise on my wrist.

I took up my discarded wrap and drew it around me, shivering.

“I’ll have my driver take you home. There is a servants’ entrance to the garden you can leave by. I’ll show you where.”

I said nothing.

“Unless you want to go hail a cab looking like that.”

“Swear to me you won’t drag Eli into this,” I spoke barely louder than a whisper.

“Why would I do that?”

“Swear!” I was surprised by the ferocity of my own voice. “Do it or you will never see me again, consequences be damned.”

That gave her a moment of pause. “You actually do care about her don’t you?”

“I can bear you hurting me, I can’t bear you harming others because of me.”

“Such a noble creature,” she laughed softly, reaching to brush my hair from my face. “Don’t trouble yourself little spy. That marine is far too plain to suit my tastes. I’ve no interest in fucking her.”

The tension eased from my body and I was merely exhausted. “Good, show me this gate then.”

I shed the ruined dress the moment I was back in my quarters and walked naked across the cheaply carpeted floor to my tiny bathroom. I had just stepped beneath boiling water when I heard a knock at my door.

I stayed where I was and began to scrub at myself. The knock came again. After a time I heard Eli call my name. I did not answer.

I thought she must have left but when I stepped form the shower and drew a towel around myself she knocked again.

“Sophie,” she called softly. “Please, I’ll go if you want but I just have to see that you are alright.”

I wasn’t alright, I was as far from alright as I could possibly be.

I went to the door and spoke through it, forcing my voice to be as emotionless as possible. “I’m fine. Go away.”

“Just let me see you.”

I knew that was a bad idea, but I also knew that if she stood in the hallway any longer surely someone would come along and notice her.

I cracked the door just enough to look out. I had clearly not schooled my face as well as I’d hoped because her dark eyebrows furrowed with worry the moment she saw me.

We stayed like that for a long moment and then I heard footsteps down the hall. I stepped out of the way and motioned Eli into the room, closing the door behind her. That was a mistake.

The moment she got a proper look at me she gasped. “Sophie, your wrist.”  

I looked down and saw just how darkly the generals fingers had bruised me. I covered my wrist with my hand. “It’s nothing.”

“You are covered in bites and bruises.”

I looked away. “Eli, I don’t know what you think you saw or happened but truly it is none of your business.”

“It is if General Harper is hurting you and you’re not telling anyone.”

“She’s not hurting me, it was just rough sex.” The lie sounded weak even to my own ears.

She did not believe me. “Is she blackmailing you? Whatever she has on you, it is not worth this.”

“She’s not blackmailing me.”

Her sky blue eyes narrowed with determination. “She is, isn’t she? Is this why you’ve become so quiet and withdrawn? You can’t let this go on any longer.”

“Eli please. You truly do not understand what is going on.”

She shook her head. “I know you think you are alone, but you’re not.”

“You can’t help me.” In that instant I wanted so desperately to fall into her arms and tell her everything.

“No but others can. We’ll go straight to the ambassador. If she can’t protect you from General Harper, she can at least transfer you to a new posting.”  

My heart broke in a thousand ways. I forced my face to go blank, my voice to remain steady. “Eli, I know you think you have a duty to help me but I’m no damsel in distress and you are no white knight.”

“Sophie,” she made the mistake of reaching for me.

I flinched back and her eyes filled with hurt.

“If you do anything, you’ll only make things worse for me.”

“I can’t just…”

“Yes you can!” I snapped. “I’m telling you to drop this. Promise me you will.”

She looked away and didn’t answer.

“Get out of my room.”

“Sophie,” she said gently .

“I said get out!”

With another concerned look, she did.

The next morning I went to the ambassador and told her she had to transfer Eli off planet.

 


	5. Tender Mercies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter than usual, but I figured this story was more than overdue for an update. Enjoy.

General Harper was uncharacteristically gentle with me the next week and that worried me far more than if she’d been violent. 

She raised an eyebrow but did not bother to rise when the housekeeper showed me into her sitting room. 

“No dress?” she sounded almost disappointed. 

I glanced down at the shirt and trousers I hadn’t bothered to change out of after work. “You’ll strip me quickly enough, what does it matter?”

She motioned for me to sit beside her, instead of across from her and offered a glass of wine. “I like when you look pretty.” 

“You like when I look helpless or vulnerable.” 

“That too,” her lip curved in a half smile. She was enjoying the conversation. 

I looked away and drank my wine. I didn’t want to keep giving her what she wanted but I felt as if I would truly lose myself if I ceased to even give voice to my defiance.  

She wrapped an arm around around my waist. “I heard that that overly curious embassy guard friend of yours was reassigned off planet. Tell me, was that your doing or the ambassadors?” 

“My request, her order,” I said simply. “Eli realized that you were abusing me. That wasn’t going to end well for anyone.”

She chuckled and leaned over to kiss the side of my neck lightly. “So you sent away your would be rescuer for her own good?”

I turned my face away as I set down my glass. “She couldn’t have helped me.”

She caught my chin between two fingers to turn it back to her. “Or perhaps you simply  prefer the martyrs role to the damsel’s.” 

I held her gaze. “Have you ever considered that I might just be a calculating bitch? I’m protecting my own career.”

She tilted down her head and kissed me with deceiving tenderness. I didn’t fight, didn’t pull away, but I didn’t kiss her back. She grew bored of that and yanked me into her lap. “If that is all you’re doing, your selling yourself very cheaply. Even a low ranking courtesan makes more than your embassy likely pays someone as junior as you.”

“I am not a courtesan,” I snapped. 

Her hands began to wander, tugging at the buttons of my shirt. “No, if you were a Varcian courtesan, I could never have used you as cruelly as I do. Courtesans have a strong guild to protect them and the right to refuse a client they don’t want. Your embassy has given you to me without conditions.” 

I forgot the first reply that came to my lips when the fingers of her right hand slipped through my bra and caught a nipple. She pinched so hard I cried out. Apparently that wasn’t enough because she chose that same moment to nip my neck hard enough to surely leave a mark.  

She leaned back against the couch, pulling my back fully against her front, giving her full access to my body. Her fingers traces lower, unbuckling my pants and slipping into them. She began to make slow but firm circles of my clit with three fingers. I couldn’t help it, I pressed against her fingers, my body burning with need even as I despised her.    

She kissed my neck where she had just bitten. “Honestly, I don’t know why you even want to work for people like that.”

“Not everyone in the Terra Nuevan diplomatic corps is like the ambassador here and eventually I’ll be transferred.” I was amazed that I managed to be as capable of speech as I was. 

“Not if I tell the ambassador to keep you here.” Her fingers dipped lower, pressing into me. The angle was awkward and she couldn’t go very deep but I still felt it and gasped. She began short, rappid come hither motions with three fingers, pressing up against my g-spot in a way she had to know would work. 

I could feel my body start to tremble. In my desperation I grabbed a the back of the couch, clawing the thick material and fighting down the need to moan. 

“You’ll...you’ll, oh, you’ll get tired of me.”

“I don’t think so lovely,” she sped up her fingers and I was lost. 

I covered my mouth with my left hand and tried not to cry out too loudly as I clenched around her fingers. When my shudders ceased, she eased her fingers from within me and began to lightly press on my clit again. As over stimulated as I was, it quickly became too much and I couldn’t fight down the need the writhe. 

She spoke again, “A woman as delectable as you is a rare thing, defiant and yet so easily ruled by the needs of the flesh. It would take something of great value indeed, for me to let you slip through my fingers.” 

I knew an opening when I heard one, “just say what the fuck you want.” 

“Have you ever considered being a double agent?”

As close as I was to a second orgasm, her words managed to to cause me to go utterly still in her arms. “I am no traitor.” 

“You’re a fool not to be little diplomat, especially after the way you’ve been betrayed. I’d sooner slit a superiors throat then let myself be used as you have.”

Somehow, in spite of all the things she’d done to be me, her looking down on me like that, saying she’d do something different in my position, struck me as the ugliest insult she had ever given me. My lust cooled even as she kept my body shuddering. 

“Have you then?” I spat.

“Then what?”

“Slit a superior's throat?” 

She nipped my ear before she whispered in it. “Truth be told I’ve mostly relied on poisons, although I did shoot my first commanding officer in the back of the head. She thought she could do whatever she wanted to me when I was under her command on the Kepler front. I waited until a Terra Nuevan raid and then did away with her.”

How she could keep touching me the way she was as she told me something like that, I had no idea. To my shame, my nerves obeyed her wishes, even as my mind rebelled. A second orgasm sparked and burned through me and I didn’t try to be quiet this time. 

I slumped against her utterly exhausted. She made a soft sound of approval and rest her arms around me in what seemed a mockery of an embrace. 

“Are you suggesting I shoot you then?” I asked.

“I’d never be fool enough to let you close to me with a weapon.” 

“The ambassador then, I won’t murder her for you, no matter how much I hate her.” 

“I wasn’t asking that either, her remaining alive and in her current posting is rather to my advantage.”

“Then what?”

She nuzzled at the back of my neck, “I’d have you get me information little diplomat, that is the only thing that truly has value.” 

“I’m too low ranking to have access to anything like that.”

“Sometimes even office gossip is valuable and you won’t be low ranking forever.”

I turned in her arms, straddling her so I could see her face. “What kind of fool do you take me for? Do you really believe I would betray my own people and deliver myself fully into your power? At least now I can still go home. If I become a spy for you and am found out, if I’m not shot, I’ll never be able to leave Varcia.”

She grinned and tapped me on the nose. “Or perhaps you’ll be smart enough not to be caught and might even take back some of the power that has been ripped from you.”

“You’re certainly the last woman alive to tell me something like that.”

“Am I? Oh the things I could teach you about intrigue and real power, little diplomat.”

“Fuck you.” 

“Eager thing aren't you? Well if you insist, then kneel on the floor. I would have you mouth. 

Grudgingly, I crawled off of her and sunk to my knees beside the couch. I didn’t even fumble with the clasp of her pants. I hated that I’d performed the same act for her enough times to have become familiar with the double button clasp that Varcian military uniforms used. 

As I set to my task, she stroked my hair and told me. “Think on what I have said and do not give me another answer until you are certain.” 

 

She kept me very late that night, not letting me go home until nearly dawn. I was so tired, I overslept and was late to my meeting with the ambassador the next morning. She gave me an annoyed look when I stepped into the small soundproof room where we always met. 

“How nice of you to join me.” Her frown deepened when I sat down across from her at the small table. “Did you even look in a mirror this morning?” 

I hadn’t actually. I wasn’t particularly fond of my own reflection lately.  

She sighed and fished out a pocket mirror and passed it to me, along with her own silk neck scarf. “Have a bit of self respect girl, at least cover the marks on your neck.”

I hadn’t thought my hated for her could grow any more but it did. Up until that moment I had intended to tell her about General Harper trying to turn me into a double agent. In that instant I decided not to.

Instead I related the story General Harper had told me about killing her first commanding officer.”

The ambassador listened but seemed unimpressed. “I’ve heard rumors to that fact before, although it is useful to have them confirmed I supposed. Has she said anything actually useful, perhaps about the military’s plans or the empress’s inner circle?”

“I thought that was the information you were buying from her with the data chips.” 

“She’s scrupulously careful with what she chooses to share, just enough to equal the value of what I have given her and never more. If you could get her to let something more significant slip, that could prove invaluable.”  

I stared at the aging stateswoman coldly. “She and I aren't exactly cuddling and sharing pillow talk.” 

She returned my look with an equal lack of warmth. “You’ve fucked a good quarter of the women in this embassy, don’t tell me that you know nothing of charm or seduction.”

I was beyond tired of her calling me a slut without at least using the word. “She’s not stupid enough to let something slip, no matter how charming I am and if I try to ask she’ll only become suspicious.” 

“Try anyway. No matter how smart a woman is, lust can still make her stupid. Use that to your advantage.” 

When my expression didn’t change, she sighed. “And you can stop glaring at me like a kicked dog. I’m not asking anything of your I wouldn’t of any other operative.” 

“I was never trained as a spy,” the words felt false to my own ears.

“You have been since you put that clip in your hair. If you truly feel unequal to the task to which you have been set, I can see about getting you some instruction in proper espionage and manipulation techniques.” 

Something about her tone filled me with a sense of unease. My first impulse was to refuse anything she offered me, then again I kept finding myself in situations I had absolutely no control over. “If you think it necessary.” 

She nodded. “I’ll make arrangements. No if there is nothing else, I’ve other things to get to.”

I was used to such curt dismissals and was glad to get out of that building, back into the clear air of the yard. Although it was still early fall, the air already had a chill to it. The blue grey sky that stretched above me was indistinguishable from that of my own home planet, save for the triplet moons that shone so bright they were visible even in the daytime sky. 

I thought of going back inside and telling the ambassador that I was done, asking her to simply send me home. I couldn’t be entirely sure she’d even let me go, but if she did at least I would be away from General Harper. 

If I ran, after I had let myself be hurt so many times, it would all be for nothing. I’d truly feel like a kicked dog for the rest of my life. I had no intention of turning traitor but I still couldn’t get Harper's words out of my head. Was it even possible for me to take back some of the power that had been taken from me? If there was, I intended to find it. 


	6. Just a Game

**** I wore my office clothes again the next time I went to General Harper. Let her find defiance in my clothes and push me on something I didn’t truly care about. My optimism lasted until I was shown into her sitting room.  

General Harper was sitting across from two stunningly attractive women. One could have easily been an actress or a socialite. She wore her blond curls in loose ringlets about her shoulders and painted her full lips a crimson red. Her well cut and clearly expensive dress of the same color framed her assets beautifully. 

The woman beside her was closer to the sort I usually went for, tall and pleasingly muscled. Her short hair was the sleek black shade more common to Varcians. She wore a silk blue shirt that clung to her and dark pants. 

I was so startled it took me a moment to notice that both women wore a small blue hoop earing in the cartilage of their left ear, which marked them as members of a courtesan’s guild. 

The right to wear the earrings was apparently something the courtesan guilds and capital city’s sex workers union fiercely defended. The physical reminder that they had a guild’s protection was far more effective than any laws that were supposed to protect them. 

Courtesans who were not members of a guild were permitted to wear similar earrings, but they had to be silver. Ordinary unionized sex workers always wore a red cartilage piercing. Those who operated outside of the unions protection or who had been thrown out were permitted no such earing at all. 

 I’d never had any interest in hiring another woman’s company when I could easily seek an eager partner on my own but the information had been included in my basic orientation to Varcian culture. 

I felt deeply out of place standing in front of such carefully dressed women when I was wearing scuffed leather shoes, a somewhat wrinkled button down shirt. My hair was coming loose from its braid and my face was unpainted.

“Sophie,’ said General Harper as she stood to greet me. She crossed the room to pull me into her arms and kiss me as if we were lovers in truth. What new cruelty was this? “Please allow me to introduce you to my guests, Brett and Bell. They will graciously be joining us this evening.” 

She led me back towards the couches. Both women stood.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Brett offered me a formal Varcian bow, which I awkwardly returned. 

Bell surprised me by moving forward to kiss me on both cheeks, the way Varcian noble women greeted close friends. “You are as lovely as she described,” she whispered in my ear, her voice pure silk. Under better circumstances that might have given me a pleasant shiver. As it was, I felt like an actress who had not been given her script. 

Harper guided me to the couch, one hand on the small of her back. I sat and accepted a glass of wine from her. I had no idea what I was expected to do or say. 

Bell moved quickly to fill the silence. She talked easily about the empress's harvest ball, which she had apparently attended. Even as she waxed poetically about the decorations and music I could feel her watching me carefully, trying to get my measure. Brett seemed to be watching her, patiently waiting for any cues. 

I wasn’t sure what, if anything, they knew about the situation. That they had not seemed surprised to see me, which likely meant that Harper had contracted them to lie with a couple that evening, not just her. Unless they knew General Harper very well, they likely thought she and I were genuinely lovers. However, my evident surprise at seeing the two courtesans had set Bella ill at ease. 

Harper threw an arm around my shoulders drawing me closer. Her movement startled me and I sloshed my wine, getting some of the golden liquid on my dark shirt. Bella took up a cloth napkin and leaned across the table to hand it to her. The movement was clearly meant to be charming, especially in the way it showed off her decolletage. I blushed and took the napkin awkwardly, dabbing at my shirt without much purpose. 

Bella sat back and smiled gently. “Forgive me for asking Sophie but I think perhaps Brett’s and my presence here tonight was a surprise?” 

“Yes,” I admitted. 

“A surprise meant to cheer her up after a difficult couple of months,” said Harper. 

“A very thoughtful gesture,” the courtesan said to the Varcian noble before turning back to me. “I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page.” She actually winked. “Now, this is something you two have discussed before right?”

My throat felt dry, I couldn’t talk. What would Harper do to me if I told the truth? Would I be putting these two women in danger if I didn’t play along.

“Of course we have,” said Harper evenly. “She’s just very shy.” 

Bella’s smile grew brittle for an instant. I could see she didn’t believe Harper. “That’s alright, I think though that it might be a good idea to talk about plans and expectations for the evening before we proceed.” 

Harper’s face darkened slightly. “I think the contract was very clear.” 

“Yes it was. However, as your lovely companion here has not signed it, I am required by guild policy to verbally explain guild regulations to her and get her verbal consent before we can proceed to the funner part of the evening.” 

“Is that really necessary?” there was an edge of annoyance to the general’s voice.

“I’m afraid so. I could lose my license if I don’t. I’ll try not to be too boring, I promise.”  

“Fine, proceed.”

Bella turned back to me, her smile again softening and almost reaching her eyes. “Now. as I imagine you’ve already realized, Brett and I are registered courtesans. We are both full members of the White Lily guild. Your lover has contracted us to share your bed this evening.” 

I nodded not knowing what to say. 

“Have you ever hired anyone from a guild before?” she asked carefully.

I shook my head. 

“It’s really not much different than lying with any other lover, there are just a few rules meant to protect both courtesan and client. The White Lily Guild forbids clients from ever marking or restraining courtesans in any way. Beyond that the contract for the night permits your love or you to touch Brett and I in any way you wish, including vaginal but not anal pentration.” 

I was blushing so hard I couldn’t meet her eyes. 

“You can, however, ask us to touch or penetrate you in any way you wish,” she said. When that didn’t get any response she added “Don’t worry, neither Brett or I will do anything until your or you lover ask us to.” 

I still couldn’t seem to quite look up. 

“The one absolute rule, for everyone’s safety is that any party involved can stop things for any reason. My guild uses the words green, yellow, and red. Green means go, yellow means slow down and red means stop completely. If you need things to stop, say either stop or red. If I or Brett say red, we expect you to immediately cease anything you are doing.” 

I nodded.

“Alright, almost done. The last thing I need is for you to verbally say that you have heard and understood everything I have said and agree to those terms.”

“I do,” the words felt like ashes in my mouth. 

“There, now that all your boxes are checked, can we finally proceed to the bedroom?” asked Harper as she stood, tugging me with her. 

“Yes of course, thank you for your patience.” Bella would have likely made a far better diplomat than I ever would. 

Brett rose and then offered her fellow courtesan a hand. Bell rose in a single graceful motion. She and her companion followed me and General Harper to the bedroom. 

As they walked, Harper whispered in my ear. “Be good or I will make you regret it.” 

I still wasn’t sure what her game was. Was she simply getting off watching me pretending that everything was fine?  

“How is that any different from your normal threats,” I whispered back. 

“Balk tonight and next time you return I’ll make your ambassador also send me that little diplomat you told me to stay away from at the ball, Sarah Castor, wasn’t it?”

My blood chilled.  

Once inside the room she nudged me towards the bed “Strip.” To Bell she said. “Do the same and see to her.” Then she turned towards the chair she’d sat in the time she’d watched me with her lieutenant. She motioned Brett to follow her and it wasn’t hard to guess she wanted her to go down on her while she sat and watched the bed.

I shed my clothes mechanically, tugging my shirt over my head with out troubling with the buttons and then quickly unclasping my bra. I kicked off my shoes and yanked my pants down along with my underwear. I was just straightening up when I realized how brusque, even angry I must have seemed. 

Bell was still stepping out of her shoes, reaching back to find the clasp off her dress. A look of concern flickered across her face before it was again replaced by the smiling mask. “I can’t quite get the zipper, can you give me a hand honey?” 

I nodded, my voice still unwilling to comply. She turned and I easily found the zipper and tugged down. Her skin was warm beneath the smooth silk. The shadow of lust rose up in me for a moment. She stepped out the dress, catching it up to lay across a nearby chair. 

Her undergarments were nearly as stunning as her, a beautifully red lacy bra, underwear of a similar hue. Her silk stockings were held up by an intricate set of clips and garter belts, that were likely meant to be ornamental. 

She caught me looking and offered a grin that seemed more real than any of her smiles had. Even if her looks were part of her profession, she struck me as the sort of woman who still liked to be properly appreciated. “See something you like?” 

“Your beautiful,” I managed. It was the truth at least. If I tried hard enough I could pretend that we had met under better circumstances. 

“So are you. Help me with the rest of this?” 

“Sure,” I said.

She moved closer all seduction and charm. 

“Go on and bloody kiss her already,” Harper’s voice yanked me from any illusions I had. 

I drew back and the worry grew in the courtesan’s eyes. I couldn’t let that happen. It was safest for everyone if the courtesans never realized they’d been drawn into a cruel game. 

I reached for Bell, drawing her clumsily into a kiss. She was taller than me so I had to lean up a little. I still managed to tug at the clasp of her bra with trembling fingers. She kissed back unhurriedly and trailed her hands gently down my back, finding the muscles tense and coiled beneath her fingers. She rubbed and pressed lightly as she kept kissing me, trying to calm me. “Bed?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said because I knew I was supposed to. 

She broke the kiss and took my hand to guide me up onto the soft sheets. Uncertain what to do, I let her lay me down. She stretched out beside me, kissing just beneath my ear. Very softly she whispered. “It’s okay if you don’t want to do this. I can stop.” 

I realized she’d drawn me to the bed because it was far enough that Harper couldn’t hear us as easily. “No, I…” I wasn’t what to say. I couldn’t exactly tell the truth. 

She kissed me a little lower, more on my neck but still close enough to my ear to be heard, “I get it, not every woman wants to tumble a stranger. This was your lover’s idea and your just going along with it right?” She had assumed something far more innocent than the reality.

I played along. “Please, let me do this for her.” 

“Trust me I’m good at putting on a show.” She kissed me again and then stretched out beside me. She was a woman who  knew how to pose, curls thrown over her shoulder, body turned perfectly to display herself if General Harper happened to glance our way from the chair. I was afraid to look that way, although the sound of a sharp breath told me that Brett might have nearly brought her to a first release of the evening. 

Bell lightly ran her hands over my body, focusing on my arms first and then slowly circling inwards to trace my side and stomach. She traced my breasts but did not make the touch any more intimate than that. I was almost able to relax. 

“Is this okay?”

“Yes.” 

Then she shifted and made a show of kissing down my neck. Afraid or not, her lips still felt incredible against my skin and a soft sound rose unbidden to my lips. Her hands got a little bolder and her fingers finally did brush a nipple then. When she did it again the feeling was electric. 

She felt that reaction and trailed her kisses to a nipple and then lightly applied her lips. I audibly gasped and clutched at the sheets. She was certainly very good at what she was doing. She traced her fingers lightly up my inner thigh. When I made no protest she went higher, running her fingers across the outer lips of my labia without pressing further. It was becoming increasingly hard to remain still.

I heard General Harper gasp and then go silent, which was about as much sound as she ever made when she came. Bell looked up, tilting her head coyly as she held out her hand. “Join us?” 

I finally did look towards the chair. Harper was already standing, tugging her pants back into place. A naked Brett was still kneeling, not certain yet what to do next. Harper crossed to the bed, motioning for the dark haired courtesan to follow her. 

In a playful and false conspiratorial tone, Bell told General Harper, “I think your lover got all hot and bothered watching you with another woman, maybe you should ease her longing.”

Harper sat down on the edge of the bed, and almost gently reached out to brush my hair from my face while still looking towards Bell. “Is that what she wants, huh?” 

Bell nodded. 

“Seems like that would be a waste, especially considering what I paid for the company of you and your friend for the night.” she did not sound playful at all.

Bell instant looked slightly insulted by Harpers tone but she recovered quickly, brushing an errant golden curl back into place. “What would please you both then?” 

“Go down on her and then finger fuck her. Get her as ready as you can. I want to see your companion take her with a strap on.”

Bell cast me a questioning look. I forced a smile I did not feel and reached for her, drawing her into a kiss. I’m not sure I was convincing but she kissed me back anyway. Then she scooted down the bed, nudging my legs open. I leaned back against the headboard. The moment Bell found her mark it took everything I had not to grab her hair. She was as good with her mouth in intimate places as she had been in others. 

Harper nudged the other courtesan, “Kiss her, touch her as your companion does.” She stood then, going to retrieve something from a drawer.

Brett settled down on the bed beside me, her dark eyes searching mine. Her hand was gentle as she caught my chin and drew me into a kiss. She was as good a kiss as Bell and just as talented with her hands. Between the two of them I soon began to forget what I was afraid or care about anything but the sensations they were both giving me.    

When Bell pressed her strong delicate fingers into me, I was more than lost. I grabbed at the blankets and turned my face from Brett so I could struggle for breath. It only took a few curls of other woman’s talented fingers and I was biting my lip not to cry out as an orgasm shuddered through me.  

General Harper sat on the edge of the bed again. She tapped both courtesan’s. She handed Brett a harness and a rather large dildo. She gave Bell a bottle of lube and a substantial butt plug. “Here get this into her while your friend puts on the strap-on. 

Bella accepted the toy and sat up, weighing it in her hand. “You want this?” she asked me flirtatiously.

“Yes.” I lied. 

When my face didn’t match my words, she drew her eyebrows together. “Have you used it before?”

Harper spoke for me. “Not that particular toy but she’s been fucked in the ass before, trust me she can take it.” 

Bella frowned at the metal toy again and said to me. “Why don’t I get you ready with my fingers and see how that goes?”

“Okay,” I nodded, trying to sound enthusiastic. I settled back again. She slicked a finger with lube and pressed it against my ass. She took her time, making slow circles, pressing only the tip of her finger into me and then drawing back, before doing it all again, working up to the second knuckle and then the whole finger. 

Brett settled down on my other side and reached down to rub my clit. She had me gasping soon enough, even pressing back against Bell as she worked a second finger into me. I began to feel the stretch again when the courtesan got to a third but she was in no rush. 

I almost made a sound of disappointment when she pulled her fingers from me and reached for the butt plug, lubing it. She kissed my cheek. “Okay honey, lets see how this goes. Remember you can tell me to slow down or stop any time you want.”

I made the mistake of opening my eyes and saw General Harper watching me with hungrily from an arm’s reach away. What little calm I’m managed vanished in an instant.  Unfortunately that was also when Bell began to press the metal toy into me.

She felt my tension and eased the toy back before lightly pressing again. I tried to relax but I couldn’t, not even with Brett still rubbing my clit. I made a sound of discomfort without meaning to and felt tears at the edges of my eyes.

“Easy lovely,” said Bell gently. “Just relax and let it happen.” 

I really did try but I just couldn’t. Her care and kindness made everything so much harder. Somehow knowing that she would stop if I asked her made it almost impossible to endure something I didn’t want. 

She tried a few more times and then stopped, offering an apologetic smile. “Perhaps this may just not be the night for this toy. Is there a different toy you like or shall we move on other pleasurable things.” She sat back and Brett stopped touching me as well.

I let out a breath of relief. “Other things.” 

General Harper however, wasn’t going to let that happen. She scooted closer. “Don’t stop,” she told Bella and then caught my chin in her hand, forcing me to look at her. “You can take the plug, you’re just fighting it.”

Bell made no move to obey. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Do as I tell you, I’m certainly paying you enough for the evening,” snapped Harper.

To her credit Bell didn’t blanche. Instead her face grew grave and she traded a quick glance with Brett before she spoke, “Not enough to cause a woman harm.”

“You signed a contract,” her voice had taken a dangerous tone.

Bell held her ground. “Yes and in case you did not read the fine print, as a courtesan of the White Lily guild, I  have the right to refuse to participate in any act I deem to be unsafe for myself or anyone else involved.” 

“You’re an awfully litigious whore.” 

“If you wanted someone with no scruples you should have hired a woman without a guild or a union.”  

“You impertinent little bitch,” General Harper’s eyes narrowed and her hand clenched at her side as she glared at the pretty courtesan. Brett saw and tensed, ready to defend her. While she was no soldier, she was young and solidly built and could likely hold her own against the general in a fair fight. In my minds eye I could see everything going wrong in an instant. If either courtesan, guild or not, raised a hand against the general I doubted they would survive the night. 

“Bell, it’s okay, really it is. Please just do what she says.”

“You don’t want it,” she snapped. 

“I do, really. I was just scared.” I grabbed at her arm. 

I knew then that she saw the fear in my eyes. I saw understanding blossom in her own. While she couldn’t have possibly guessed what General Harper had on me, she could tell I had no power or choice in the situation. She likely thought I was in an abusive relationship as opposed to one of all out blackmail and coercion. She had to realize that if she balked she would make things worse for me. If she went along though, she’d be complicit in the abuse of another woman. 

“Please,” I begged, hating myself as I said it, hating what I was asking of her. The only thing worse than setting aside one’s own principles is asking someone else to do the same. 

“I won’t hurt you.” 

I held her gaze, my own heart a frantic bird within my chest, “You won’t. I can take the stupid toy, really I can.”

She bit her lip, looking at me, looking at General Harper. She leaned up to whisper in my ear. “Will she hurt you worse if I don’t?”

I nodded wordless.

She kissed my cheek. “We’ll try again, use your words though, say if you need me to stop this time.”

She pressed her fingers back into my ass first. I closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t have to see Harper, wouldn’t let my fear get the better of me again. 

Brett leaned over, her fingers finding my clit again. If I tried hard enough, I could focus on that feeling. She whispered to me. “We’ve got you, your safe.” It was a bold faced lie but I’d certainly been told worse ones in my time. 

When Bell began to press the plug into me again it took everything I had to calm myself. Everything depended on me being able to accept the intrusion. I had suffered so much at Harper’s hands before I don’t know why that one act broke something inside of me. Knowing that Bell knew she was causing me pain and didn’t want to was more than I could bear. 

When the ache grew too sharp I bit at my own wrist, struggling not to cry out. Distantly I was aware that Bell was talking to me. 

“Easy, easy, you’ve got this, your doing so well honey.”

And then suddenly with a flash of pain the broadest part of the toy was inside of me and all I could do was tremble and pant. Bell kissed the tears from the edge of my eyes. 

“Now fuck her,” said Harper sounding very pleased.

“She needs a moment,” said Brett sharply. There were traces of anger in her voice. 

“Don’t test me whore,” the threatening tone was back. 

Brett’s lips thinned, her body tensing again. I didn’t need that. 

Almost frantically I grabbed her head and yanked her into a very awkward kiss. “Get on your back, it will be easier for me like that.” 

“Are you sure?” Her dark eyes were so troubled. 

“Yes.”

She complied. I found the lube bottle that Bell had used earlier and quickly slicked the dildo of the strap-on that Brett was wearing and then my own cunt for good measure. I straddled the other woman, lined up the toy and then tried to sink down on it. 

It was big and with the plug already in me, it didn't go in easily. I raised my hand to bite at my own wrist again as I slowly eased the heavy plastic toy into my body. It was all too much but I forced myself anyway. 

I felt gentle hands on me and realize that Bell had moved to my side and was kissing my cheek again as her fingers found my clit.

“Easy, take your time.” 

I didn’t even try to respond. When I reached the base of the toy, I just sat for a moment, trying to let my body adjust. Strong hands, Brett’s I guessed, rubbed my back. I stopped biting my wrist before I bloodied it and kissed her instead. 

I didn’t want to move but I knew I needed to before Harper grew impatient. At least I could control the speed and I truly wasn’t going to rush. I broke the kiss and used the dark haired courtesan’s shoulders for leverage. Carefully and slowly, I began to fuck myself on the hard plastic. 

The feeling of someone else touching me barely registered until Harper turned my face and pulled me into a kiss. The angle was very awkward but I managed to keep my perch. 

“Good girl,” she murmered, “keep fucking yourself like the little whore you are.” 

I hated her so much in that moment. 

She pinched a nipple between her fingers hard enough that she drew a yelp of pain out of me. 

“Cry all you want but you love this.”

I didn’t reply and she twisted harder. “Go on, come with your body full of plastic and metal. Find your release like the wanton creature you are.”

Damn her to all the hells but I did, screaming and gasping. She watched every second of it, content as a cat torturing some small helpless creature. When my tremors were done I slumped onto Brett, who didn’t seem to care that all of my weight was on her. I gradually became aware that Bell was rubbing my back comfortingly.

“Up you come,” said Harper. “Get off of her and onto your back, I still want you.” 

Somehow I found the strength to climb off of Brett and slump bonelessly on the blankets. Vaguely I heard Harper say. “Get the plug out off her.”

Bell’s hands were very gentle but as much as getting the damn thing out was a relief, the process wasn’t exactly easy. When that was done I felt as I had no power left in my body. Harper wasn’t done with any of us yet. I heard her tell Brett. “Go on and fuck your pretty friend on her hands and knees with the strap on. I want to hear the bitch cry out. Don’t stop until I tell you to.” 

Then Harper was over me. Her kiss was a brutal as it had ever been. She used a knee to nudge my legs open and her lubed fingers found my cunt open and slick. I wondered vaguely why she’d bothered with more lube, then as she worked up from three to four fingers I knew why.

For half an instant I considered begging her not to, telling her that I was too sore and exhausted. I knew it would do no good though. 

Something fierce and and hurt rose up in me. I must have glared because she laughed as she folded her thumb into her palm and began to press her entire hand into me. 

“Feisty little thing aren't you?” 

“Not feisty, that is far too innocent a word for this” I managed before I was lost for an instant to the intense feeling of penetration. Her hand slipped in to the wrist, with the nearly blinding flash of pain that always came with it when she was the one doing it. 

She kissed the vulnerable spot of my neck just beneath my chin and then nipped hard enough to surely leave a mark that would be nearly impossible to hide. “What are you then?” 

“Angry.” 

That earned a chuckle. She began to rock her hand inside of me, giving me no quarter, no chance to catch my breath. “I do love when you are defiant.” 

I was nearly lost to the cresting sensation of fullness, pleasure and the sharp edge of pain. All the same I managed a few more words. “And I hate you with everything that I am.”

“You’ve such a with pillow talk little diplomat.”

“And your a fool who…” 

She started to fuck me harder and my next words were lost to a desperate series of cries and gasps.

“A fool who does what?” she laughed. 

“Plays with fire.” and then I was truly lost as my entire body clenched with an orgasm that was more release than pleasure. 

She was at least merciful enough not try to drag another one out of me. Instead she eased her hand from me and pulled me into her arms, her tenderness a mockery of everything that had just passed between us. 

Beside us on the bed, Bell and Brett were still in motion, although they had slowed. Bell was on her hands and knees and Brett behind her as they had been ordered. The soft gasps the golden haired woman made every time the other woman rocked the dildo into her sounded genuine to me. She’d let her curls hide her face.

Harper watched them for a bit, absentmindedly stroking my arm with her still slick hand. Bell made a sharp sound and shuddered. Brett slowed, glancing towards Harper. 

“Keep going, I’m sure she can manage at least one more time or failing that fake it convincingly.” 

Brett didn’t try to hide her glare but she kept fucking the other courtesan beneath her. Bell shifted, going down onto her elbows so she could press the fingers of one hand against her own clit. Her breath grew shorter and more frantic and it didn't take long for her to cry out again. 

“Good enough,” said Harper. “I suppose you’ve both earned your pay. You can dress and go.” 

The two courtesans wasted no time disentangling and retrieving their clothes. I noticed that when Bell retrieved her clutch purse, she slipped something from it into her hand. When she took up her discarded bra from where it had fallen onto my shirt, she slipped what looked like a bit of paper into the pocket of the shirt. 

Harper laughed the moment they were gone. “If the White Lily guild doesn’t black list me after this, I’ll be very surprised.” 

“They should. That was needlessly cruel,” I said curling in on myself. 

“To you?” 

“To them.”

She shrugged. “It was only a game.” 

“Is that all life is to you?” 

“Of course, what else would it be?” And that in truth was what made her so dangerous. 

I tried to pull away but she tugged me back against her. 

“Where are you going little diplomat?”

“Home.” 

“Not tonight. I think I’ll keep you until dawn.” 

“I thought you were afraid I’d murder you in your sleep.”

“I think we’ve reached a point of understanding where you’ve realize that doing that wouldn’t be in your best interest.” 

I hated her all the more but I couldn’t deny it. I fell asleep that night trapped in her embrace like a rabbit with its foot in a snare. 

The next morning, as I sat in the back of an embassy car on my way to a little room in the embassy that was very much not home, I finally reached into my shirt pocket and retrieved the card that had been slipped there.

Somewhat bizarrely it appeared to be the card for a clothing boutique. When I looked up the number on my phone, I found it to be a domestic violence hotline. Somehow, in spite of everything else, that was what finally made me break down and cry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still kind of stuck on where to go with this story plot wise but I went ahead and wrote a new sex scene to keep it from going cold.


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